In most commercial RPGs, plot points represent the heroic quality of player characters, which separates them from other people in the game world, and as such are spent to increase a character's chance of success in combat or other actions.
Examples include story tokens in Capes, the seven types of Narrative privileges (Privilèges narratifs) in the 2nd edition of The Last Chronicles of Erdor (Les Chroniques d'Erdor, in French) or backgrounds in Dogs in the Vineyard.
Character creation in the Serenity Role Playing Game (2005) is point-based; in addition to that, players are able to spend plot points to change the outcome of die rolls, which become a standard feature in licensed games based on dramatic series.
[1]: 353 In the Cortex System, players receive plot points as a reward for role-playing the disadvantages of their characters, and this interrelation between plot points and complications was a trend that was more in line with indie game design than the more traditional role-playing system of Cortex.
[1]: 353 In the Smallville Roleplaying Game, plot points are a central resource which player characters gain by using complications and can be used to access superhuman powers.